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The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk
Contemporary Philosophy, Victorian Aesthetics, and the Future
The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk
Contemporary Philosophy, Victorian Aesthetics, and the Future
Description
What is steampunk and why are people across the globe eagerly embracing its neo-Victorian aesthetic? Old-fashioned eye goggles, lace corsets, leather vests, brass gears and gadgets, mechanical clocks, the look appears across popular culture, in movies, art, fashion, and literature. But steampunk is both an aesthetic program and a way-of-life and its underlying philosophy is the key to its broad appeal.
Steampunk champions a new autonomy for the individual caught up in today's technology-driven society. It expresses optimism for the future but it also delivers a note of caution about our human role in a world of ever more ubiquitous and powerful machines. Thus, despite adopting an aesthetic and lifestyle straight out of the Victorian scientific romance, steampunk addresses significant 21st-century concerns about what lies ahead for humankind. The movement recovers autonomy from prevailing trends even as it challenges us to ask what it is to be human today.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Origins of Steampunk: Science Fiction and Victoriana
2. The Victorian/Steampunk Connection: Upheaval, Discovery and the Birth of Modernism
3. The Steampunk Aesthetic in Contemporary Visual Art
4. Performing Steampunk
5. Steampunk's Challenge to Contemporary Philosophy
6. Beyond Steampunk
Notes
Bibliography
Product details
| Published | 04 Nov 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 208 |
| ISBN | 9781501349331 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Visual Arts |
| Illustrations | 18 colour and 17 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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